A 25-year-old Wheaton woman pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to sending a threatening e-mail to administrators at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Mahtab Shirani was arrested in February after sending the anonymous message, which spoke of doing a “mass shooting anywhere on campus.” The threat was made just days after the fatal shootings at Northern Illinois University.

She sent the e-mail from a campus computer, and police were able to trace it to her through her student identification information. She was arrested at her family’s home in the 2000 block of West Roosevelt Road in Wheaton.

She pleaded guilty this week to a charge of transmitting a threat in interstate commerce, for which federal guidelines recommend a sentence of 10 to 16 months, said assistant U.S. attorney Christopher McFadden, who is prosecuting the case.
She is scheduled to be sentenced Sept. 23 before Judge Ruben Castillo.

Shirani’s attorneys will try for a lesser sentence or probation, said George Pappas, one of the lawyers representing her. He said she did not have the capacity to carry out the attacks, and he cited “emotional problems” that were conflicting her.

“She doesn’t really pose any threat to anyone,” he said. “She has certainly demonstrated that she would be a good candidate for probation.”

Days after her arrest Shirani said in an interview that she had never intended to follow through on the threats. Rather, it was a cry for help, she said.

She was reeling form her mother’s death in October and facing depression, she said, and had been contemplating suicide. She said she had hoped police would find her after she sent the e-mail, though she did not sign her name to it.

“When I was typing those words, I was thinking about the consequences,” she said in February. “I was not stable emotionally. … I didn’t make the right decision.”